


hopeful rivers of love

by ivermectin



Series: ☆ there's girlfriendhood @ malory towers ☆ [1]
Category: Malory Towers - Enid Blyton
Genre: A story in 6 parts, Alcohol, Alicia & Betty's Housewarming Party, Background Relationships, Blink and you'll miss it Daphne/Mary-Lou, Coming of Age, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, Minor Bill/Clarissa, Minor Irene/Belinda, North Tower Girls - Freeform, POV Sally Hope, Pining, i am so sorry about the terrible puns in the title, implied internalized homophobia, mentions of the rest of the girl gang but very briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26306935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: Sally's Darrell's best friend, and she thinks that is all she will ever be. She tries not to be too obvious about it, and she does a fairly good job at hiding it, until she doesn't.It has never occurred to her that maybe Darrell is in love with her, too.
Relationships: Sally Hope/Darrell Rivers
Series: ☆ there's girlfriendhood @ malory towers ☆ [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911421
Comments: 17
Kudos: 14





	hopeful rivers of love

1

“Alicia is so smart, and interesting, and wonderful,” Darrell gushes, waving her hands around. “I wish I was her best friend, her someone special? Like what Betty is to her? I want to be her favourite person in this school.”

Sally tries for a smile but it comes out wrong. She shuffles the cards in her hands, watching Darrell as she talks excitedly. She glows with the force of it, and Sally is full of some sort of longing that she can’t put a name to.

It’s a desire that feels bottomless. She’s already Darrell’s friend, but it’s not enough. She wants to be Someone to Darrell, someone that nobody else is.

At the time, she thinks “best friend,” but it’ll take her a while before she understands what the longing really is. It will take her longer to make her peace with it.

2

They send letters and postcards all summer. Sally gets familiar with the slope of Darrell’s handwriting, the way her letters are all slightly italicized, all of them leaning right like a strong breeze had pushed them over.

Darrell is the sunshine, and Sally basks in it.

She’s only thirteen, but she will look back on those moments, and know that she spent a summer away from Darrell, falling in love.

3

“You… look fabulous,” Sally says, blushing slightly.

“Well, gosh, thanks!” Darrell says. “I’ve always liked this uniform. Brown and orange are rather festive while still remaining classy, aren’t they? Besides, the sunhat’s a charm.”

“Yes,” Sally says, and then blinks. “No, silly, that’s not what I meant. I meant, _you_. You look lovely.”

Darrell smiles at her, and there’s something in her expression, almost a question. But Sally doesn’t probe, and Darrell doesn’t ask.

Sally wants nothing more than to loop her arms around Darrell’s waist, to hold her gently. To drop a kiss to her forehead. To melt into her, intertwined. To kiss her.

She pulls away so suddenly it’s practically violent. Darrell looks almost hurt.

“Dinner, let’s go,” Sally says, not meeting Darrell’s eyes.

4

She spends most of the term trying not to look at Darrell’s legs, and not entirely succeeding.

She spends most of their years at school, trying not to look at Darrell.

They say you outgrow many things during your adolescence, but this doesn’t end for Sally – not even close. If anything, she just grows into it.

And it’s common, easy, expected – for her to sit next to Darrell, for her to rest her head on Darrell’s shoulders, for there to be barely any space between them. They hold hands all the time.

It provides Sally some comfort that, even as they graduate, Darrell seems to want her still. Darrell too, like Sally, hasn’t outgrown their friendship.

5

“I got a car, and you should see me drive!” Darrell says, making driving motions with her hands. “Daddy says I’m almost as good as him, and he’s been driving for years!”

 _I bet_ , Sally thinks. She knows Darrell is good at many things, and as for the things Darrell is not good at, she truly tries until she gets there. They’re both nineteen, but Sally feels older, and Darrell hasn’t changed much in temperament from how she used to be in school.

“You must take me out then,” Sally says, smiling. “To the countryside, for a picnic. We’ll make a whole day of it.”

“Oh, of course,” Darrell says, the laughter in her voice light and airy. “I’d like that, Sal.”

6 (a)

The truth comes out, as it always must. At Betty and Alicia’s housewarming, ignoring Belinda and Irene, who’d gone off somewhere and gotten lost (“probably disappeared for a snog,” Alicia had said, and Betty had grinned), they sit in a circle and drink and speak about the secrets and scandals of their youth.

Bill isn’t drinking, to keep Clarissa company, since she can’t drink even if she wanted to. Alicia is mixing drinks, brutal in the way only the youngest sister can be, tricks of the trade learnt through her older brothers’ riotous party experiences.

Somehow, the talk shifts to crushes, and then, to falling in love, and someone asks Sally the question she is dreading. And she knows that to lie in these games is unacceptable, whatever else is allowed.

So she says it with all the breath in her chest: that she is in love, and unlikely to ever get over it.

“And who’s the lucky man?” Daphne asks.

Mary-Lou shoots her a look, a _darling, have tact_ kind of look.

Sally meets Daphne’s eyes. She will not be ashamed of this, her love for Darrell Rivers.

6 (b)

“How long, Sally?” Darrell asks, something in her voice restrained like she’s holding back.

They’ve left the room and are in the balcony now. Still clutching drinks and napkins, though Darrell’s cup is empty, and she hasn’t gone for a refill. In fact, she sets her glass down on the table.

“Long enough,” Sally admits. She folds the napkin in her hand into a paper dog. She’s ready, she thinks, for whatever shape Darrell’s rage will take. If she gets hit, she probably deserves it.

But Darrell’s hands when they reach out for her are gentle, and Darrell’s body as it leans into hers does so in an act of a love so tender and cautious that it makes Sally want to cry.

“You should’ve said,” Darrell murmurs, pressing a kiss to Sally’s cheek, her hands settling on Sally’s lower back in a way that is intimate, improper and simply perfect. “You should’ve asked, Sally, you didn’t need to carry this alone.”

“You like men,” Sally murmurs. “You – Bill’s brother, that summer, you said he kissed very well…”

“I like _you_ ,” Darrell insists. “That was, I don’t know, practice? It was pleasant, but it wasn’t anything special.”

“I always thought you were so unattainable,” Sally admits.

“As I did you,” Darrell says. “Sally, my Sally. There’s nobody I adore quite the way I adore you.”

She thinks she’s crying then, or maybe Darrell is. They lean forward, press their foreheads together, and when they kiss she tastes salt. Darrell’s hold on her gets firmer, more assured, steadier, and Sally trembles with emotion as she lets her body fold into Darrell’s.

“Come now,” Darrell says, quietly. “Let’s say our goodbyes and go somewhere where it’s just the two of us.”

Sally hums in agreement, wiping at her face with her hands. Darrell gets a handkerchief out of her pocket, gives it to her, along with a gentle smile.

“We have so much future ahead of us,” Darrell says, and she’s glowing, and she looks happy, like everything is uncomplicated, like they’re in first form again, two new girls sitting in the hospital room, listening to the sea, playing board games. Learning each other for the first time, both liking what they saw.

“We do,” Sally says, quieter. “Darrell, I love you so.”

Darrell kisses her again, and then moves away, putting some space between their bodies and taking Sally’s hand. Humming a Christmas carol under her breath, she gently leads Sally back into where the party is going on, where they will say their goodbyes.

And then Darrell will drive them home, home to the flat they’re renting out together. And there, they will say a new kind of hello. One that it’s taken them years and years to get to. But now they are here.

**Author's Note:**

> i have.... mixed feelings about darrell and sally. but i did not always have these mixed feelings. when i was younger, my feelings were uncomplicated, actually, and i tried my best to do justice to that. 
> 
> one thing that there's no question about in my head: they were in Love!!!


End file.
